A Dragon's Soul
by adaliss
Summary: Fem!Hiccup There are a decent amount of Hiccup-raised-by-dragons fanfics out there, but! How many of them are about girl Hiccup? Great Odin I'm terrible at summaries. Feral AU httyd au
1. Prologue

-16 Years Ago-

Dragons swarmed the skies. The beasts were raiding, again. They lit fire to the homes and stole the food that the village had worked so hard raise. Sheep were being picked up by great, powerful talons and being carried away into the darkness. Vikings battled to try and save their food supply. The green blood of dragons was being spilled left and right. Tonight was one of the worst raids in a while. For tonight, a Night Fury was participating.

It zipped around the night sky, invisible to the untrained eye. The beast blew apart houses and destroyed catapults with its plasma blasts. It blew a gaping hole into a house that seemed to be more or less in the center of the village, but as it was swooping back up and around through the sky it heard something. It was a human, obviously, but there was something different about the sound. The dragon came down closer to the house it had just blown a hole into and heard something... whimpering.

The dragon landed in the room that was engulfed in flames and saw a tiny human. It tilted its head at the small creature. It was a little thing, a peachy, fleshy human. This bipedal made no move to attack, though. It just sat there, staring. It's little eyeballs were opened wide and there were streams of water pouring from them. The dragon took a step towards the thing, curious. It hadn't known that humans could make water come from their eyes.

The teeny human was shaking and calling out something in its human tongue. The dragon moved forward, cautiously approaching the fleshy, pink, miniature hominid. The little pink mass closed its eyes, expecting a fiery, painful death, but then, the dragon nudged the small human. Gently sniffing the cloth it darned and the auburn tuft of fur that seemed to only come out of its head. The biped looked up at the big, black reptile. It stared into the beast's great, big green eyes. It looked so gentle, so friendly. The dragon stared right back at the mammal. It didn't know humans could be so gentle, that they felt soft and smelt of milk.

The dragon now realized this must be a human nestling.

That's why it's so small. The dragon looked around the small human-nest. It saw no other humans in the slowly collapsing den. Was this nestling abandoned? Is that why it's in this roost all alone?

The dragon looked back to the human-nestling. It scooped up the small thing in its great talons and flew off, back to its nest.

_**Okay! Now we have separations! I did it for you all! I hope you understand how much I love you all now! Gah!**_

_**Anyway, really, the next chapter shall be up fairly soon. Bear with me and stuff!**_

_**3 See you soon!**_

_**-Adaliss**_


	2. Chapter 1

'Tooooothlessssssss...!' Hicca whined, nudging her brother.

The Night Fury groaned and hid his head under his paw, 'Leave me alone.'

The young woman frowned, 'But I want to fly!'

'You didn't have to fly all of last night! I'm tired,' the reptile snapped.

Hicca growled in annoyance then walked over to a fresh-water stream that was flowing through the forest that they slept in for the night. The two hadn't lived in a nest for years. Certain things- not so pleasant things- had happened and they weren't welcome in their birth-nest anymore.

But enough about the past.

Hicca splashed the cool water onto her face and then lifted a quickly fleeting handful of the clear liquid to her mouth. She gulped down the crisp spring water gratefully. She then sat back on the moss and dirt of the forest floor. She turned her eyes upward and ran her hand through her auburn hair. It was short, reaching only to the middle of her neck. She found it was best to keep it that way, less chance of it catching on fire or getting gnawed on by rascally nestlings.

The twenty-one year-old looked up at the gorgeous blue sky. Today really would be a beautiful day for flying, but she couldn't blame her brother for being tired. They had spent the entire night fleeing from angry Romans. Hicca disliked Roman soldiers. All they cared about was land, land, land. All they wanted was to expand their little empire. It all seemed very silly and pointless to her.

She and Toothless had gotten into a bit of a squabble- a messy squabble- with them and they ended up being chased.

_Ah… humans…_she thought.

Hicca lifted a hand to her freckled face and felt the soft skin of her wrist on her cheek. Why didn't she have scales? Why was she a human and not a dragon? Why did she have faint memories of a big burly man with a red beard?

These were things that puzzled her on a daily basis. She had a dragon mother, but she was not a dragon herself.

She looked up at the sky again and the thought that haunted her most crept into her brain. Why couldn't she fly?

She loved the wind on her cheeks. The cold atmosphere nipping at her nose. She felt so free up in that glorious sky. She was a dragon. But- she looked at her human legs and poked her fleshy human chest- somehow, for some reason, Hicca was trapped in a human body. She had to rely on Toothless to fly. She couldn't shoot fire, nor did she have a tail. She was a human, but she didn't know why.

The confused woman let out a long sigh. She always got like this when Toothless wasn't around. She always dwelled on these matters when she was alone, always confused about who she was.

Hicca closed her eyes and let the wind sweep past her frame.

Then, she heard a shout.

Her eyes snapped open and her ears perked up. That was most definitely a human's shout. Her body tensed up as she listened for another noise.

She hears it.

This time the voice was different, though.

There were two of them.

Hicca stood up instantaneously, the way an excited dog would, and ran back towards where Toothless had been sleeping. The way she ran was different from most humans, though; she was more like a cat. As she ran, barely any noise was made. Not a twig was broken and barely any dead leaves were disturbed.

She reached the place where her brother was sleeping and looked down at him.

'Toothless!' she growled to the snoozing dragon.

Toothless cracked an eye at his sister and then let out an annoyed sigh. He then moved so that his wing was covering his side, and brought his tail up to his face and spread out his fin in some sort of if-I-can't-see-you-you-can't-see-me action.

Hicca rolled her eyes, this was ridiculous.

'Toothless,' she hissed, 'we don't time for this!' The young woman gestured to behind them, 'There's at least two humans headed this way. We need to leave!'

The dragon lowered his tail fin to look at her, 'You can take care of it.'

Hicca's eyebrows furrowed in shock and annoyed disbelief. 'Are you kidding?'

'Just lure them in the opposite direction or something. You said there were only two, right? It should be easy enough to scare them off… or whatever…' Toothless trailed off as he started falling asleep again.

The woman shook her head in disgust at the useless reptile. 'I said _at least_ two,' she grumbled. She couldn't rightly argue with him though; it had been at least three days since he had gotten some proper shut-eye because of the continuous island jumping they had been doing the last few days. Hicca sighed and rubbed a hand over her face.

_What a pain._

Hicca grabbed a black bear skin hood that she had left lying next to Toothless earlier and wrapped it around herself. She fastened the front and pulled the hood over her head. Attached to the hood was a sort of mask that covered her face and left only slits for her eyes.

The hooded woman whirled around and started running in the direction she had first heard the voices.

She cleared the stream in a single jump and then stopped. Hicca closed her eyes and listened, letting the sounds of the forest flood her ears. She listened for the slight rustling of leaves, the distant mumble of voices.

Again she heard the voices, this time accompanied by the shuffling of feet through the forest. The people were slightly left of her and, judging by the sound of their footsteps, headed in her direction at a slower, more casual pace.

Hicca opened her eyes and mumbled, 'Okay then…'

The young woman set off in that direction at a swift pace. She glanced up at the trees looking at their leaves and heights. She kept walking until the footsteps were fairly easy to make out, and judging by noise, there were more than two. Hicca climbed up a sturdy tree with large amounts of foliage that would serve very well for a hiding spot.

She made herself comfortable on a thick branch, took off her hood, and waited for the humans to approach. It took them about ten minutes before they were in sight, giving her plenty of time to mull over how hungry she was. A couple times she even considered trying the leaves to see if they were edible.

She stared down at the humans. She had been right; there were certainly more than two. Five Vikings were tromping through the forest. Four of them were male while the fifth was female. Well, she was pretty sure it was a female…

Hicca watched them from her lofty perch, listening to their conversation.

"Fishlegs, are you sure you saw a Night Fury land on the island?" the short one with brown hair said, looking doubtfully at the fat blonde one.

The fat one—Fishlegs was it?—then said, "Yes. I'm ninety-six percent positive I saw the shadow of a Night Fury land just off Raven Point."

Ah, so they were looking for Toothless.

_Well, that just won't do_, Hicca thought as she pulled out a long tube-like thing from a pocket inside her bear-skin cloak. Then, from a pouch on her arm, she drew five darts. She loaded the blowgun and took aim at the short one. The dart hit its mark with extreme precision, knocking the fella out immediately.

The fat one looked over at his fallen friend, "S-S-Snotlou—" he was taken out by a dart before he could finish that one word.

"Whoooaaa," said the female, "are we getting ambu—" yet again, unable to finish the sentence.

The one with long blonde hair that looked somewhat similar to the girl started laughing hysterically after the female had fallen. Hicca lifted an eyebrow at the strange behavior and quickly blew another dart.

Creepy.

Hicca looked around for the last one. He was nowhere to be seen. She swore under her breath. The sneaky bastard must've hid whilst she was shooting the creepy one.

She clicked her tongue as she crept down from her post; this was proving to be quite the pain in the neck.

Seconds after she touched her feet to the ground an axe came flying straight for her face. She dodged it, just barely, and it buried itself into the trunk of the tree, only centimeters away from her nose.

Hicca turned in the direction of which the axe had come from to see a blonde braid disappearing behind the trunk of a tree.

"Well," she said, speaking Norse so that he could understand her, "that certainly wasn't necessary. I just made them go to sleep."

Hicca wrenched the axe out of the tree, "Just look at how wedged in this was! You'd think I murdered your family or something!"

The woman started walking towards the tree she had seen him go behind. "You can come out now, I mean, there's no way you can kill me from behind tree."

When Hicca was only a meter or so away from the tree the man came running at her, a knife in hand. After that the rest was all a bit of a blur for her, she managed to grab his hands and push him down using all of her body weight. She was soon on top of him with the knee and foot of her right leg pinning down his left arm, her left hand holding down his right forearm, and her left leg restraining his thighs as best as it could. Again from the pouch on her left arm she pulled out a dart. She held it centimeters from his neck.

Then, she stopped.

She took a good look at the man. He had these lovely blue eyes and pretty blonde hair that looked so soft… He wore a fur hood that connected at the front and a deep burgundy shirt. Hicca had never thought of a human as being necessarily pretty before. Dragons had always been a thing of true beauty to her, not once had she thought of a human as beautiful. Hel, she hadn't ever even been attracted to them (not that she was attracted to dragons either…). But as she looked at this man all she could think was "Pretty…."

During Hicca's little inner monologue the man saw his chance in her hesitation and started to flip over in order to pin her instead. His sudden movement jerked Hicca back to her senses, and she pricked his cheek as he was turning over. His movements slowed and Hicca could see the sleeping toxin taking its effect. She had been unable to stick him in one of his main veins, though, so the venom wouldn't take full effect, and instead just make him extremely drowsy.

"Now look what you made me do," she told him. "Now, instead of you just quietly going to sleep, I'll have to tie you up so you don't follow me. I hope you happy." He looked up at her through clouded eyes, still obviously fuming at her. "What?" she snapped. "It's not like I can poke you with another one in order to save your pride. If I poked you again then the poison would send you into such a deep sleep that you would die. Anyway, you'll be fine, you should be able to at least move—slowly— in the next fifteen to twenty minutes. Your friends will wake up in about an hour."

Hicca ran a hand through her hair and stared down at her unresponsive conversation partner. _Better get this over with_, she thought.

"Come on," she said walking around to his head and then grabbing underneath his armpits. She hugged his back to her chest and started dragging him over to a tree. "Whoa," she groaned, "you're fat!" In response she received a groan that sounded pretty irate. He couldn't properly speak because the poison made him feel so exhausted.

Hicca chuckled, "That would have been much funnier if I could have understood it."

She leaned the young man up against the trunk of the tree he had hid behind earlier and situated his arms at his sides. Then she looked inside her cloak and checked her hips and legs. She cursed under her breath. 'Toothless has the rope,' she grumbled.

She sucked air into her lungs and released the carbon dioxide in one great shout that sounded just like a Night Fury's call. She heard a groan and turned to see the man's eyebrows furrowed and his mouth stretched into a frown of pain. Hicca bent down, "Sorry, you should already be having an awful headache. That probably didn't help." She massaged his temples, "This should take away some of the throbbing." His eyebrows slowly relaxed and his overall expression seemed to soften.

Toothless landed soon after and stared at the two, 'Am I interrupting?'

'Toothless!' Hicca said, walking over to him like an excited puppy. She dug around in the saddle Toothless was wearing and then pulled out some rope.

'I screwed up with this one but I got the other four,' she explained trotting over to the tree. She quickly tied him up and then went over and retrieved the knife he had tried to stab her with earlier. She stuck it in the ground about a hands length away from his feet and then walked back over to Toothless.

'Thank you,' she sing-songed. Toothless rolled his eyes, 'Is that all you needed me for?'

'Yeah,' Hicca responded.

Toothless looked over at the male and then back to Hicca, 'So?'

'So, what?' she asked.

Toothless tilted his head slightly, 'Weren't you just preening him?'

Hicca's eyebrows furrowed and she frowned almost comically, 'I was _what_?'

'That's what it looked like.'

'I was not.'

'So you were just petting his hair for no reason…'

Hicca scowled at the dragon, 'I was fixing his headache.'

'So, you _don't_ find him attractive?' Toothless said doubtfully.

'Well,' Hicca looked over at the man then she turned back to Toothless, smirked, shrugged, and said, 'I never said that.'

The dragon snorted at her.

'Yeah, whatever,' Hicca said shoving Toothless playfully. 'Let's go so you can get some proper sleep.'

Hicca looked at the man once more before they took off. After all, it was probably going to be the last time she saw him.

Probably.

Later that evening, after dusk, Hicca woke up from her nap with an unladylike snort. She looked around the dark cave they had found on the other side of the island—Toothless was in no shape to fly to another island considering, his extreme lack of sleep. It was a damp and dreary cave, fairly cold too. The only real source of light in the great orifice was the fireflies that danced around in the air. Hicca watched them for a time, admiring their ability to glow without producing fire or heat. They just shone. It was amazing.

The young woman stood up and cracked her back and neck, sleeping on hard rock did nothing for her. She glanced over to where she had placed a small pile of fish she had caught for Toothless to eat when he woke up. Hicca smiled from relief when she saw that the space was vacant. Toothless must've awoken at some point and taken the time to eat. The last thing she needed was for him to die of hunger.

She sat down at the mouth of the cave, closed her eyes, and opened her ears to the sounds around her.

On the other side of the island she heard rowdy Vikings yelling their drunken goodnights as they returned to their houses. That was one thing she liked about Vikings, they never cared about being quiet or sneaky when they were at home. Hicca smiled to herself and looked up to the night sky. It was beautiful with the moon shining down pleasantly over the water. The stars were also gorgeous. There were so many shining up in the heavens, layers upon layers of tiny lights gracing a purplish-black sky.

Hicca stayed like that for a while, staring up at the sky, thinking, wishing. She sorted through her thoughts and reflected on who she was. She eventually dozed off again, only to be reawakened a few hours later by dragons' screeches. Hicca's eyes snapped open and she sat up straight, wiping away some drool that had escaped from her mouth during her slumber. She closed her eyes and listened to her brethren's words.

It was a raid.

Hicca hummed slightly and looked back at her brother who had also awoken because of the noise.  
'A raid,' she said.

Toothless sat down next to her and silently stared out the mouth of the cave. After a minute he looked down at his sister, 'You want to go too, don't you?'

Hicca looked up at him with a sheepish grin on her face.

The dragon let out an exasperated sigh, "Fine."

The woman mounted her dragon and the two set off towards the village.

They flew over the village which was currently in a state of pure, unadulterated, chaos. Dragons and Vikings swarmed the area. Buildings and pastures slowly burned to the ground. Toothless flew through the night sky almost completely camouflaged. He flew straight for a catapult and released a plasma blast that blew up the contraption almost pathetically easily. As he was making his upward swoop back into the skies something wrapped around his wings and back causing the two of them to fall to the ground.

Hicca and Toothless screamed as they descended and crashed into a house. Hicca managed to squirm out of the bonds that were securing her brother. As quickly as possible she started cutting the ropes that bound Toothless. She was so distracted by the yelling and her own panic to relieve her brother of the ropes that she noticed only too late that angry Vikings were pinning her and Toothless down.

"Let go!" she yelled furiously, kicking and wrestling the two arms that held her down. She managed to successfully connect her elbow with a cheek—she assumed it was, anyway— before another set of arms grabbed her. She screamed and struggled in protest until she looked at Toothless. At least six or seven burly men were on top of him, restraining his tail, body, and muzzle. She watched in horror as he squirmed and writhed but to no avail.

"Leave him alone!" she screamed at them. "Get off!" she shouted at her own captors. Her protesting increased as she tried to wrestle the humans off of her so she that could save her dragon.

She yelled out threats and vain demands telling them to not harm him and to release her.

Suddenly she was brought up to her feet with the two sets of arms restraining her. Hicca cried vile things in both Dragonese and Norse to the surrounding people as she struggled forward. Then she was being dragged backwards, away from Toothless. She struggled and dug her heels into the earth. Hicca then saw a man with an axe approaching Toothless.

Her eyes widened, her breath quickened—and for a moment—, it felt like her heart stopped.

"No!" she shrieked.

_They can't hurt Toothless._

"Don't hurt him!" she yelled, not noticing the hot tears that started to pour down her face.

She screamed her protests, begging for them to spare her dragon. She was so terrified she even tried other languages she had picked up over the years, "Non parcas ei!" she wailed, attempting some broken Latin.

"Don't hurt him!" she cried over, and over again, "Don't hurt him."

They started to drag Toothless away, also.

_Toothless_.

'Toothless…'

'TOOTHLESS!'

**Well! Here's chapter one! I'm glad this is getting so much love. I mean, really, 16 faves and 19 alerts just for the prologue? I'm blushing man. I'm seriously super flattered.**

**Here's a little key for the speech**

**' ' = Dragonese**

**" " = Norse or another human language**

**_Thoughts are italicized._**

**Next chapter is from Astrid's (or Asher's or whatever I'm gonna call him('s)) POV.**

**You will notice that Hicca is missing some words in her speech occasionally. I just wanted to say that this is on purpose. I swear! I figure that she is quite adept at Norse because she spoke it regularly up until she was three and humans are unavoidable so she would have to learn the language and stuff.**

**Anyways! Thank you so, so, so much for reading this I really hope you liked it and I really hope that you might continue to like it.**

**Love you all!**

**Adaliss**

**P.S. If you guys might think of a better summary then please let me know because the current one is god-awful.**


	3. Chapter 2

**(Yes, I am alive. I have things with the stuff at the bottom.)**

Asher had never heard a human sound so much like a dragon.

He looked down at the wild woman that had earlier bested and poisoned him. He sneered; the damn headache still hadn't subsided.

The woman thrashed about violently, trying to break free of his and Silent Sven's grip. Chief Stoick had ordered for her to be locked up down in Berk's very own dungeon of sorts; it was a cavern where they usually stored any extra dragons if they need them for training.

The place was usually empty.

The mongrel of a female landed a hard kick on Asher's shin. In response he tugged back on her arm, almost dislocating her shoulder. Almost.

She winced but soon continued her relentless screeching and lashing. She finally attempted to bite him and he shrugged away just in the nick of time. He got a good look at her face. It was covered with ash, a bit of blood leaked from her nose, and her lip was split. He absently figured that the split lip had happened when she and the dragon had fallen into the shed and the nosebleed when he had knocked her to the ground. She was probably bruised and cut all over from that nasty fall, and his beating on her didn't help at all.

The last thing he noticed where her eyes.

Those orbs were practically gushing tears of hate. But it was her eyes themselves that really struck him. They were like gazing upwards in a dense forest on a summer's day. Her eyes showed so much emotion. They showed her rage and… fear.

Fear of what?

She tried to snap at him and again he evaded her jaws. Asher groaned, Stoick had asked him to watch over her until the tribe meeting, which surely wouldn't be until well after breakfast.

It was around three hours before dawn and the official breakfast wouldn't be held in the Great Hall until a good two hours after dawn.

Asher could already tell it was going to be a long day.

Asher had been watching her for about three hours by the warm torch light, and he had yet to understand a single thing that might've been going through that head of hers.

For the first fifteen minutes after she had been tossed into her caged, she had screamed and hollered and kicked at the bars to her confinement. He had watched as her rage slowly settled and she curled up on the floor facing away from him. That had lasted around a half hour and every once in a while he could have sworn he heard a sob of sorts, quiet and muffled—yes—but a sob nonetheless.

Then she gave to pacing. It was a restless and agitated motion, but he could tell that while her feet weren't cool and collected, her mind was. He watched her trip over nothing at all yet glance around her cell, taking in its every detail. He observed her in silence, taking in _her_ every detail.

Auburn hair, cut short haphazardly, some chunks burnt at the ends.

Tall, a little on the scrawny side, but with well-developed hips and thighs.

Her clothing was practical: an olive-green, long-sleeved tunic; dark green leggings mended in various places; a tan cloth wrapped around her waist to form a sort of skirt, it was littered with moth-holes and tears; leather boots strapped onto her feet by multiple belts.

Asher had an exceptionally keen eye when it came to surveying his enemies.

She stopped her pacing after about an hour. So that left the remaining hour and fifteen minutes for her to stare at him.

It was extremely unnerving.

She never looked away or said anything. Just stared.

For over an hour.

Of course, Asher being the stubborn man he was, just stared right on back. Neither of them flinched, neither of them looked away. It was a silent battle of gazes and they were at a stalemate.

After another fifteen minutes of some very intense staring—borderline glaring—the two looked away at the same time, giving up the pointless war that had raged between their minds. Asher took a long swig of some mead that had been graciously brought to him earlier by one of the village women.

Asher never noticed, but a great deal of them pined for his attention. He was one of the most attractive single men in the village and he had quite a few females swooning over him. He was handsome, skilled at fighting, and very, very likely to become chief someday. He didn't know, but he was basically the most premium piece of beef still on the market.

He set down his mug and leaned back against the wall.

"Thirsty," a small, hoarse voice called out.

His eyes flew back to his strange watch as she repeated, "Thirsty."

He called up the glare that was his usual countenance and looked at her. She scowled and held her hand out expectantly, "I am thirsty." Asher hardened his glare in response. No way in _Hel_ was he giving her _anything._ She simply held her hand out passed the bars of the cell, "I am _thirsty_."

Asher sneered at her and she sneered right back. "Should've thought of that before ransacking our village, traitor," he ground out.

She jumped up, indignant, and glared hateful daggers at him while she spat out, _"We_ take to _live._ You kill and fight for _revenge._ You _no_ right to say I a traitor. Unlike _you,_ I don't kill."

Asher snorted at that, "Yet it's just fine for you to steal and pillage for no reason? A bit hypocritical, don't you think?" She looked a bit confused at the word "hypocritical," but only continued her haughty glare.

Her mere essence was making him furious so he rose and stalked over to her makeshift cage. He watched as she pulled herself up to her full height and puffed out her chest in an attempt to make herself seem more intimidating. He internally laughed, as if that would work. "You are nothing more than a common thief and a murderer. They steal our children, our women, our comrades. You lot have killed _hundreds_ of us!"

Fury glinted behind those green eyes as she shouted, "And you kill thousands of _us!_ Dragons defend themselves! If they no steal from you, _she_ eats _them!"_

Suddenly, Asher saw something flicker in her face; she hadn't meant to reveal what she had just revealed. She? Who was she? The vile creatures' swarm queen? That would mean Stoick's theory was right. All they needed to do was kill the queen which seemed to have control of them...

Before he could think twice, Asher's hand had snuck its way through the bars and was gripping the front of the young woman's shirt. "You've been to the nest," he growled, "you can lead us there." The statement was almost a question.

If they could kill the queen, then the dragons would leave. The village could finally sleep in peace. Everyone could be safe- Asher was too caught up in his thoughts to properly react to the knee that came up in between the bars to connect with his groin. Immediately after impact, he let out a curse and shoved her back into the cell before doubling over in pain.

He turned to glare at her, only to find her face slightly flushed as she worried on her bottom lip. She'd said too much and they both knew it. He'd take extra care to mention his findings at the meeting.

The next couple hours had been excruciatingly silent, awkward, and tense. Neither had spoken or moved after Asher had recovered from the groin-kicking incident and sat down.

Asher's mind had been going a mile a minute for the majority of the time. His thoughts ranged from how large and dangerous the dragon queen could be to why in the great Thor's name he had passingly thought- it was for just a second, really- that the vile dragon woman had looked somewhat - Valhalla help him- cute when she had been all flushed and flustered earlier.

He was just tired.

Yeah.

That was it.

He refused to dwell on it as he and Spitelout brought their prisoner to the Great Hall. Curiously enough, she seemed terribly _calm._ Unlike earlier when she had been kicking and screaming in a rather savage manner, she was now serene and almost _regal._ It was rather off-putting.

Inside the Great Hall, angry Vikings threw insults at her left and right. Again, she took it all in stride, calmly walking and ignoring their jeers. Asher would never admit it, but he was slightly impressed. He would've snapped and tried to pulverize the lot of them almost immediately.

She continued her impressive tolerance until she and Stoick looked at each other. The two froze immediately.

Emotions that Asher couldn't quite read colored both of their faces. Confusion was the most recurring one, though. He glanced at Gobber, even _he_ looked a bit conflicted. Glancing back at the woman, Asher cocked an eyebrow. Who _was_ she?

The two seemed to recover, mostly, from their internal conflicts (although Gobber still stared at her with his mouth slightly agape). The woman was the first to speak, "Where is my dragon?" The question sounded more like a threat, but Stoick didn't flinch, didn't even blink.

Instead, he raised a bushy eyebrow and looked as he gazed at her, "So he's your pet?"

She practically snarled at the word "pet" and opened her mouth to retort, but Stoick cut her off, "So, _traitor,"_ he leaned forward, "you must know where the dragons' nest is."

Her lips went tight for a moment before she asked again, "Where is my dragon?"

Stoick scowled at her, "Where is the _nest?"_

She pursed her lips and repeated her own question yet again, _"Where_ is my _dragon?"_

Stoick stroked his beared as he said, "Alive."

Asher heard her breathe with relief.

Throughout the rest of the questioning, she refused to respond. All she did was stare at the chief with pursed lips and a straight back. She revealed nothing and kept up her regal stance without faltering once. Eventually, Stoick gave up on her and ordered for her to not be fed and only allowed water for the next two days. Maybe then she'd be more keen on talking.

Asher, instead of helping with returning the woman to her prison, stayed to speak with Stoick. He, admittedly, had some sway with the man being one of the village's best fighters, and, unbeknownst to himself, the possible next chief.

"What if we use the dragon to sway her?" Asher proposed, but the chief quickly brushed the idea aside with a wave of his hand. "No, it's too dangerous. We can't afford to have her and the Night Fury together. We honestly shouldn't still have the beast alive."

Asher 'hmm'ed as he rubbed his scruffy chin, "We could always just beat it out of her-"

"What if we tried to gain her trust?" Gobber interrupted. Both Asher and Stoick turned to him in surprise. The idea seemed entirely too... diplomatic for one Gobber had thought up. He was usually into the Viking tradition of "use force and if that doesn't work, then you didn't use nearly enough of it."

Gobber went onto explain, "If we can get her on our side, then we'll also have a Night Fury to defend us."

He had a good point...

The three talked for a time, and eventually it was decided that Asher would be the one to gain the dragon-girl's trust. He left the Great Hall with a single thought on his mind:

_Why me?_

**AN: Okay, um... I am SO SORRY it has taken me this long to update. This chapter wasn't even that exciting... I honestly was ****_not_**** expecting this story to get NEARLY as much traffic as it's getting. I'm kinda freaking out. Gah. I'm really sorry to all of you readers... I'll try and keep up with it! Promise! But. Um. YEAH! I'm alive! I promise the next chapter will be more exciting. Thank you for reading, and please excuse any grammar errors. *bows***


	4. Chapter 3

Hicca paced her cage. Toothless was alive! For now.

She gulped nervously, 'For now.'

She had to figure out a way to escape along with Toothless. The main issue was that she had no idea where they were keeping him. Escaping this cage and her current guard would be simple, finding Toothless? Not as easy.

'Not to mention,' she mumbled to herself, 'he's probably hurt after that fall.' She worried on her lower lip. 'What if something happened to his wings?' She exclaimed, 'His tail?' How would she fix that? What if those monsters were doing horrible things to him? What if they chopped off his tail to ensure he couldn't escape?

Hicca drew a nervous hand through her hair; they'd never be able to escape if that was the case.

They'd never be able to fly again.

Hicca resolved to not think about such things and focus wholy on finding Toothless. 'But how do I get to him?' she asked herself, gesturing wildly with her hands. 'I mean, I can't just go asking around,' she heightened her voice in mock innocence, '"Excuse me, but where might I find my dragon?"'

The Viking that had been assigned as her guard for the time-being shifted uncomfortably. This crazy dragon girl kept making all of these weird, rumbly dragon sounds. He jumped as the girl cried out and slapped her forehead. He swallowed, maybe those rumors about the girl being some sort of witch were correct...

'Well,' Hicca murmured, 'considering it was violence that got me into this mess, I highly doubt it's going to get me out.' But how in the world was she going to use the diplomatic approach with a bunch of Vikings?

'I'm certainly not going to help them find the nest,' she grumbled. 'Although that nasty queen could use a good whipping.' Why did some dragon alphas insist on being cruel when being kind was easily the better option?

Hicca snorted, 'Not that a few Vikings would stand a chance against her anyway.' Hicca groaned loudly and rubbed her hands over her face roughly. As she pulled her hands away, something incredibly stupid yet incredibly tempting popped into her head. 'What if,' she muttered, 'I make them like...' She paused and took a glance at her guard. He jumped and his eyes widened in suprise as she stared him down.

'Could I make you love dragons?'

Heavens, the idea seemed so far-fetched to her. She'd never even though it a possibility. Like holding up a fish to a dragon and telling them to be best friends. Incredibly stupid. Incredibly impossible.

But...

Wasn't she a human?

Hicca bristled at the idea. She'd never thought of herself as a human before, not really, anyway. The one who raised her had been a dragon, her best friend/brother was a dragon. Only dragons had ever mattered. Humans had always been this silly pink things with dangerous swords and loud mouths that occasionally made things that were amazing.

Was that what she was?

Her brows knit together and she stared down at her hands. 'Is that me?' She asked. Was she a human...?

Or was she a dragon?

Before she could ponder that anymore, her tummy growled. Hicca pursed her lips into a tight frown and stared at her empty stomach. That stupid chief had said no food for two days. 'I'm gonna starve,' she whined, drawing out the word "starve."

'Stupid chief,' she grumbled. Speaking of that chief, why did he seem strange? Hicca sat down. 'No, not strange,' she said aloud, 'familiar.' She rested her arms on her crossed legs. That man had made her feel so... nostalgic.

Feeling restless and uncomfortable, Hicca shifted her legs and brought them up to her chest instead, wrapping her arms around them. Who was he? Why did he make her chest feel funny? Not in the way the stupid, gross, mean, icky, rude blond man did either. No, with that man it was as if she felt... Sad?

'No,' she mumbled, 'not sad.' Hicca heaved a sigh before letting her head fall to the floor. _Who is he?_ was the question on her mind as she fell into and exhausted slumber.

Asher solemnly chewed on a piece of fish. This was the end for him, he knew it. He was being used as a means to seduce the location of the dragons' nest from a woman who gave him one of the worst migraines of his life _and_ kicked him in the balls.

Odin help him.

He was supposed to take the evening shift for guarding her and get her to like him. How was he supposed to do that? He wasn't the most personable human being. Let alone the fact that he already had something of a bad past with her. How was he supposed to get her to like him?

Asher stifled a groan as he finished up the last of his fish. How was _he_ supposed to _pretend_ to like _her?_

Grumbling a multitude of curses, Asher made his way down to the extra cages. That brat. She'll probably try and kick him again. Great Thor, the very thought of her made him twitch in annoyance. How was he supposed to be civil with her? Let alone make her like him. Gods, he wasn't even charming.

Why oh why couldn't this be solved with force?

Asher stalked into the "dungeons," which were dragon cells carved into the walls of a cavern close to the training ring. He swiftly relieved her previous guard who had seemed all to happy to leave. Asher furrowed his eyebrows in confusion; what had she done to the poor man?

Brusquely, he made his way over to the dinky little stool pressed up against the dirt walls and sat down. He wasn't quiet or delicate in either of these actions which, in turn, seemed to wake the dragon girl from her slumber. He watched her sit up in a hurry with a small yelp. Asher bit back a chuckle. It was like seeing a sleeping puppy wake up from being startled by its own snores.

He watched as she scrubbed the sleep from her eyes and yawned. The auburn mop on her head was even messier than before. How was that even possible? Gods, he wanted to fix it. It was so messy it grated uncomfortably on his nerves. He was a man, a _Viking,_ and he still managed to keep himself well-groomed. Asher grit his teeth. Her hair looked so messy and- and _imperfect._ He wanted to fix it. He really wanted to _fix_ it.

While Asher was having a mental break down over how messy her hair was, the dragon girl had begun staring at him. Tilting her head slightly, she asked him, "What is your name?"

Her words snapped him out of his internal rant and he looked her in the eyes._ I guess I should probably tell her_, he thought to himself. _If I'm to gain her 'trust.'_

"Asher," he mumbled. She made small noise in acknowledgement and continued her staring. Asher felt the corner of his mouth tilt down ever so slightly from her rudeness. "And your name is...?"

She seemed to perk up at that and made a strange noise. It started as a sharp exhale, followed by a soft click, and then ending with a diluted cooing sound. Asher's fingers twitched; she had sounded like a dragon.

In an attempt to cover up how uncomfortable that had made him, Asher scoffed lightly into his fist and asked, "In _Norse,_ please?"

The woman blinked in what seemed to be surprised at that. Her mouth flapped hopelessly a couple of times before her face turned hard in thought and her hand rested decidely on her chin. After a few moments a sound finally erupted from her throat.

"Hhhhiii..." she started, "kk-uuhh." Asher raised a brow at the strange display. Quietly he watched her struggle through a few more attempts before supplying, "Hiccup?" It was honestly the first word that popped into his head from her struggles.

Her green eyes turned to his blue and she shrugged whilst nodding her head. "That sounds fine."

Asher didn't even try and hold back his snort of amusement at that.

Hiccup's- well, he guessed that was her name- eyebrows rose at his rare show of mirth, and after her brief moment of shock, her mouth turned up in a toothy half-smile.

_Well_, Asher pondered, _maybe managing to be personable won't be_ too_ hard. _

Hiccup scooted towards the the door of her cage on her rump and leaned forward. "Is my dragon well?"

_Scratch that earlier thought._

"Alive," he stated shortly and glowered into her big, puppy dog eyes- wait. The longer he stared at her the more pathetic she seemed to look, and- good Thor, were those _tears?_

Was she seriously going to start crying over a blood-thirsty dragon?

Hiccup gulped and squeaked out, "Is he hurt?"

"I don't know," and he honestly didn't. There had been no time to go gawk at the 'unholy offspring of lightning and death itself.' He'd been busy helping to rebuild the village, again.

What was that? Third time this month?

He watched as her eyes fell to her hands, whole body slumping forward. "I understand," she mumbled before turning away from him and lying down.

They didn't bother talking for the rest of his time guarding her, but throughout the time, Asher started thinking much more about that deadly black lizard locked away on the island...

**AN: THAT'S RIGHT GUYS. A SOON-ISH UPDATE! ARE YOU PROUD OF ME? I'M PROUD OF ME! Anywho. This chapter contains a bit more identity crisis from Hicca, a slight peek at Asher's atelophobia, and no Toothless. I promise Toothless will be back! **

**Also! I really just want to thank anyone that's reading this. I'm super flattered that people like this crap I'm dishing out. I'm also sorry that these chapters are so short... Oh well. But really! Thank you for reading and I hope you'll continue to read! :) Bye!**

**(Also, totally lied about this chapter being more exciting. ahahahaha...ha... sorry.)**


	5. Chapter 4

The next day, Asher visited the Night Fury. What was he thinking? _Obviously nothing_, he scolded himself as he stood in front of where the deadly beast was being held. Oh dear _Gods_ what was he doing? When did he become a moron? What was he? A Thorston? No! He was a Hofferson, and Hoffersons were not buffoons.

Granted, he bit the inside of his cheek, Hoffersons didn't shy away from danger either.

_For the sake of the village_, he reminded himself. He was doing this for the sake of the village. Face a Night Fury and then no more dragons. He could do it. He could face a Night Fury.

Very carefully, Asher opened the door to the Night Fury's enclosure and peered in-

Only to see two very green eyes glowering at him in the darkness accompanied by a deep growl.

Well, it was _most certainly _alive.

Asher carefully lifted a torch he had previously prepared up to peer at the pitch black beast. It still seemed to have both wings. He couldn't see its tail from where he was and, quite honestly, didn't care to investigate further for the dragon seemed just about ready to pounce-

He slammed the door before something akin to death itself tackled and killed him. Oh dear Thor. It wasn't even that big and he still felt much more threatened than if it'd been a Monstrous Nightmare or Scaldron.

It had seemed so..._ intelligent_. Asher swallowed; he didn't like it. He didn't like it one bit.

The stupid, fat guard had fallen asleep and Hicca was currently trying to convince a Terrible Terror to come over and talk to her.

'I swear it's not dangerous! Do me a favor, would ya? It's so boring I think I might pass out!'

'There is human here!' The Terror- Snip was her name- hissed. 'I will be killt!'

'A stupid, fat, _slow _human! You will be fine! C'mon, please? I'm already not allowed to eat!'

Snip snuffed and paced warily a few times while eyeing the human before quietly fluttering over to Hicca. 'Thank you!' she cooed happily.

'You best keep your word on tummy rubs,' she grumbled, nosing Hicca's outstretched hand. Giggling slightly, Hicca scratched the grumpy Terror under the chin before it flipped over, revealing a scaly little stomach. Hicca's smile only grew wider when Snip began to purr.

'So,' the woman muttered, continuing her ministrations, 'why are you in the human village in the first place?'

'Getting more food for queen. You lucky you left nest. She getting worser and worser.'

Hicca growled. That nasty alpha.

'Hope she chokes on the next dragon she decides to devour,' she muttered darkly. Snip laughed- Terrible Terror laughs were, in Hicca's opinion, one of the most lizard-like; their laughs were like a series of short hisses. Hicca smiled, it was very nice indeed to finally have some scaled company again.

Hicca quietly listened as the little dragon droned on about nest life: the annoying hatchlings, the attractive potential mate named Taft, the bossy Monstrous Nightmares and the airheaded Nadders, the whiny Scauldron that keeps stopping by. All of it made Hicca homesick.

She missed nest-life. She missed dragons.

She missed Toothless.

As Hicca was about to respond to one of the Terror's mundane questions, she suddenly heard footsteps. 'Not the annoying one!' she gasped in horror.

Yes, she knew his name, but that didn't mean she had to use it.

Asher appeared from around the corner to find Hicca and Snip acting similar to young maiden and a friendly cat. His face turned from one of boredom to wary in a split second as he grabbed a knife from his belt.

'Nonononononono!' Hicca cried, standing up and waving her hands sporadically. 'Don't-' Norse, she reminded herself. "Don't hurt her! Don't- she-" Hicca looked down at the little dragon. 'Snip, run,' she told it.

"She will not hurt anyone! Promise! Please don't hurt her!" Hicca's attention quickly shifted when she heard a yell sound from her left before the previously sleeping guard stormed after Snip. Panicking and trying her best to think fast, Hicca whipped off her boot and threw it at the charging man's head seconds before his axe could come down upon Snip.

The gruff man spun around to face her, clearly shocked to have had a boot to the back of the head. Luckily, in this fleeting moment, Snip was able to make her escape, loudly throwing curses back at the Vikings in true Terrible Terror fashion. Such obscene things they were.

The man who had received the boot to the head started yelling at her. Hicca quietly backed into her cage. Hopefully someone would eventually give her her shoe back- that was half of her only pair!

Glancing at Asher, Hicca tried to gage the emotions that flittered across his face. Sadly, she couldn't identify a single one. Jeez, even dragon facial expressions were easier to read.

During the fat, stupid one's tirade, Asher stepped forward and placed a careful hand on the angry Viking's shoulder. Hicca cocked her head and watched as Asher looked the man in the eyes and told him to go on home. Her eyebrows furrowed as the man diverted his eyes in a huff before bidding Asher a goodbye before leaving the cave.

If that hadn't been a show of dominance, Hicca didn't know what was.

Bringing her hand up to her mouth, Hicca quietly chewed on a stubby thumb nail while she thought. That had been the display of an alpha and a subservient dragon, but Hicca could have sworn that the strange man she had met with in the big building was the alpha of this "human-nest." Could it be that human nests have more than one alpha?

No, that couldn't be, Asher had seemed submissive towards that alpha.

Maybe since humans don't have as long of life-spans as dragons they were required to choose the next alpha? They have two alphas? Fascinating...

Hicca was awoken from her thoughts as her boot landed on the dirt floor in front of her. Looking up, she saw Asher looking at her with his arms crossed, seemingly unimpressed. "So, you can actually speak with them?" he asked.

She nodded hesitantly, wary of the question. "Are they," he paused, "intelligent?"

Hicca raised an eyebrow, "Yes..."

Asher hummed lightly and leaned against the bars, looking thoughtfully at the ground. 'Maybe,' Hicca muttered under her breath, 'just maybe...'

_Could he- at least not hate- dragons?_

"Have you," she stepped forward, slipping her boot back onto her foot, "ever pet one?"

Asher promptly stared at her as if she had grown a second head.

Hicca chuckled slightly, "Dumb question." Carefully, she placed her hands on the bars and looked into Asher's eyes, "Do you _want _to pet one?" His disturbed look only intensified, "Why in Thor's name would I want to pet one of those blood thirsty beasts?"

Hicca wondered briefly who "Thor" was but didn't pay it much mind. "They are not blood thirsty," she exclaimed. "They are warm, gentle, and smart. You have never tried to know them! All you do is kill!"

Asher glowered, "I don't see the dragons trying to make peace, if they're as smart as you claim. Dragons have killed members of my family and good friends. I have every right to bear a grudge against those bastards!"

"Every dragon you have killed had friends! Some of the dragons you have killed had babies!"

"Do you realize how many people have gone hungry during the cold months because of dragons?" Asher yelled.

"Do you realize how many dragons have died because of a selfish queen?" Hicca screamed back. How _dare_ he victimize the humans. How _dare_ he. Not when so many dragons die for a cause they hate but can't avoid.

Hicca exhaled and rested her forehead on the bars, "Why must humans hate everything so?" When Asher was silent, Hicca peeked up and asked, "Want to pet a dragon?"

Asher stared at her in complete and utter disbelief, "_Seriously_?"

"What about a small one?" she asked, holding her thumb and forefinger an inch or two apart. "I do not know what humans call them. They are small, reddish," she paused, "don't sting or burn or glow, just bite."

"A nanodragon?" he offered.

Hicca shrugged but filed the name away nonetheless. Moving the wrap on her waist, -her captors had only bothered to take her bear skin and arm guards—Hicca unstrapped a small bottle and held it up to Asher. "Go get one," she ordered.

Asher snorted, "No."

"Please," she mumured, pushing the bottle into his hands, "Give me a chance."

Asher looked into her eyes for a few long moments, silently contemplating, and then, after seemingly forever, he took the bottle and quietly exited the small cavern.

Hicca fidgeted restlessly the few minutes he was gone. Was she doing this? Was she _really_ doing this? Who even does this? She must be insane. Dragons and humans are mortal enemies! And Vikings are the most stubborn of all humans! And Asher was the most bull-headed human she's ever met on top of it all! How is any of this going to work? And- and-

Hicca's stomach growled.

And _holy terror _was she hungry! _Ignore it, she told herself. Ignore it. Make him like dragons. Yes? Yes. Good. _

Asher walked back in a moment or two later, staring skeptically at the bottle in his hands.

_Juuuuuust peachy_.

With no small amount of distrust, Asher gingerly handed Hicca the small bottle. Hicca swiftly opened it and a small, very angry, nanodragon came tumbling out onto her hand. The little thing was squawking furiously and releasing small spurts of smoke in annoyance. 'Listen-' she tried to tell it. 'No-' full fledged fire was coming out of its mouth now.

Hicca tried to shush it, but it cared not for anything as civil as listening and bit down on Hicca's thumb before she could gain its attention. Now, to be clear, nanodragons' bites feel like a highly concentrated bee sting multiplied by three. Needless to say, Hicca cried out.

'Would you calm down?!' she yelled at it. That finally gained the little beast's attention as it stopped its angry- and profane- rant to look up at the human. 'I'm sure you're not even _harmed_,' Hicca grumbled, licking at her now sore thumb. 'The worst you've probably had to experience today is a bumped head.'

The little dragon humphed, 'It was still a kiddnappings!'

Hicca snorted, 'Hardly.'

It snuffed and looked away, sitting in the middle of Hicca's palm like a very tiny petulant child.

Sighing heavily, Hicca made the human(ish) equivalent of a slight purr in the back of her throat- a dragon's signal of submission- and said, 'I'm sorry for the trouble; my name's Hicca.'

The nanodragon snuffed once again and haughtily replied, 'I, stupid human, am Mighty: Fiercest of Fierce!'

Hicca had to force herself to not roll her eyes. Nanodragons were small and felt the incessant need to compensate for their size with their personalities. In other words, they were obnoxious snobs.

'Nice to meet you,' Hicca began. 'Would you mind speaking with us for a bit? I swear on the first queen's egg you'll be returned to your home safely.'

'Us?' Mighty queried skeptically. It turned around to look at Asher and Hicca quickly followed suit. Sure green eyes met confused blue ones for a split second and Hicca winked quickly before turning back to Mighty. 'That human speaks too?'

Hicca bit back a smile at that. 'No, he doesn't,' she answered. 'He is a stupid Viking.'

Mighty squawked, 'You want me to speak to a big nasty?!'

'Yes.'

'Never,' Mighty hissed. 'The Big Nasties have killed too many dragons. I don't trusts!'

'And you,' Hicca responded diplomatically, 'could be the dragon to ensure the Big Nasties don't kill anymore dragons.'

Mighty looked decently taken aback now, 'That is impossible.'

Hicca smiled ever so slightly, 'Only if no one ever tries.'

Mighty was quiet for a moment, swishing his tail in thought. 'As long as I am not squished, I will talk to the Big Nasty for you.'

'Thank you,' Hicca chirped. Cradling Mighty in her right hand, Hicca reached her left through the bars and groped the air a tad before seizing Asher's hand and bringing it through the bars and into her cell. She pushed down his fingers until only his index finger stood straight. When she began to move the hand harboring Mighty, however, Asher tensed.

Hicca looked up at him, mildly annoyed, and said, "Stop it. He thinks you will hurt him." Asher glowered but bit his tongue and relaxed himself as much as he could. Hicca watched him carefully until she was sure he had calmed enough for petting.

Carefully, the woman brought Asher's hand towards the dragon until finger touched snout. Mighty snuffed at the finger before lightly butting it with the top of his head. Hicca then used the offered finger to stroke Mighty's back. Mighty started purring quietly and arching into the pets.

Hicca smiled at this and took Asher's finger away only to have him cup his hand. Gingerly, she poured the little dragon into the waiting appendage. Asher sucked in a nervous breath as the dragon snuffed about his hand before nuzzling his thumb. The nanodragon bit the finger lightly and let out happy puffs of smoke. '—human smells nice,' Hicca heard him mumble. She bit her lip in a smile, strangely pleased to see such affections being expressed.

Asher shifted slightly before bringing his other hand up to pet the little beast seated in his hand. Hicca did not miss the soft expression that splayed across his features in that moment.

He was her own personal definition of beautiful in that one moment.

The two jumped from the peaceful moment when Mighty made a small cheeping sound. Asher's face reverted to one of scowling once again and Hicca was instantly reminded of how annoying he was.

He scoffed and said, "I'm putting this thing back."

Mighty chirped indignantly as he was roughly taken back outside. Hicca rolled her eyes and collapsed upon the dirt floor in a huff. When Asher returned to the cave this time, Hicca's only thought was: _Damn,_ _I'm hungry._

**WOO NEXT CHAPTER. IIIII suck at uploading regularly. What's going to happen next chapter? Hell if I know. Hahahahaha... **

**So anywho, thank you for reading. I don't mean to be one of ****_those _****writers, but reviews do tend to guilt trip me into writing. I'm an asshole like that. Please excuse any and all grammar mistakes. **

**Lastly, thank you for any and all support and all your sweet comments. You guys make my day. **

**See you next chapter!**


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